Atmosphères Music Festival
A festival under the banner of Ligeti’s “Atmosphères”
Music that seems to defy the laws of gravity. Sounds that take the listener with them, generate a mighty undertow, and draw you under their spell. Hardly any other orchestral work overwhelms its listeners, while at the same time leaving them so uncertain about its style, in quite the same way as György Ligeti’s “Atmosphères”, which was composed in 1961 and is barely ten minutes long. Stanley Kubrick, whose classic 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey” derives a great deal of its impact from its use of Ligeti’s music, was not the only one to recognize the suggestive power of these sounds, their inexplicable, fantastical, visionary momentum. This modern classic will be performed at the Music Festival 2018, which invites the audience not only to enjoy the sensual experience of listening to it, but also to look at it analytically. What is its extraordinary impact based on? In what compositional environment was it possible for “Atmosphères” to come into being? From what did Ligeti dissociate himself? What musical ideas did he pursue in his piece? And which works, including those from other eras, function in a similar way?
